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Hello everyone,
I've been lurking on this board for quite a while now, and have only posted one other time. I apologize if this post gets long~~I have a tendency to ramble on.
I see that there are people here in many different situations, stages of weight loss, and following different diets. I thought that it might be valuable to some to read my past experiences. I do know that not everyone may agree with everything I have to say, but, such is life!
I have been struggling with a weight problem my entire life. I was an overweight child, and continued to gain through adolescence. My weight gain is attributable to nothing more than a large appetite, a preference for high-fat, high-calorie food, and no desire to exercise.
Around the age of 16, I began to diet (then weighing around 180lbs) and managed to lose about 35 lbs. Since then, I have reagined the lost weight(I'm now 25), attained my adult height (5'2") and fluctuated between a low of 180 and a high of 242.
I have tried many "diets" and ways of eating, among them Weight Watchers, Slim Fast, Deal-A-Meal (boy that was a long time ago), the rotation diet, Atkins, Ornish, SugarBusters, as well as calorie counting and/or fat gram counting.
As for exercise, I have, over the years, joined a gym, powerwalked, TaeBo'ed, bought Richard Simmons videos, took aerobics, swam, and recently took up cycling.
It would be very easy for me to say that none of these diets or exercise regimens worked, since I have a net loss of zero after trying them all.
What's closer to the truth, and harder to admit is that they ALL work. Some are better/healthier/easier to maintain in the long run, but all of them do produce results if you follow them to a T and maintain. However you choose to perform the calculation, weight loss can be viewed mathematically. This was very hard for me to see at first. In order to gain a pound, one must eat 3500 calories above and beyond what it takes to maintain. In order to lose a pound, the reverse must happen. In general, any other fluctuations are caused by fluid retention.
All of the diets I mentioned will eventually
result in weight loss--some more slowly, some more quickly, and obviously, supplememting them with exercise is key. The vast majority of health professionals recommend that you lose an average of 1 lb. per week. It doesn't seem like very much at all, until you realize that (at least in my case) putting on all this weight has consumed more than10 years of my life--so what's so bad about taking 2 years to lose it?
When my GP offered me a prescription of phen, I was reluctant to try it. I have had success in the past with picking a plan and sticking to it--I just seem to lose my motivation somewhere along the way. I didn't want to rely on drugs and I didn't have this preconception of phen as a "wonder drug" (in fact, I'd never even heard of it, except in the phen-fen combination).
At her urging, I am trying a 1 month prescription. So far it has been 17 days. Phen is not a wonder drug, it doesn't MAKE me lose weight, it doesn't STOP me from eating if I want to. What it does do is curb my voracious appetite, and let me be a little more comfortable with eating the "right" amounts of food (aka portion control). Phen is a tool to give you time to learn how to eat healthy without feeling like you are starivng. I plan on taking my 1 month supply and then going it on my own, because I believe in myself and the mathematics of proper, healthy weight loss.
In the 17 days on phen, I've lost 8 lbs.--as far as I'm concerned, that's a lot. I also assume at least 3-4 lbs was fluid, and I am anticipating losing an avg. of 1 lb/week while still eating plenty of healthy foods.
Who's to say where I'll be in a year? Maybe 50 lbs less, hopefully.
But if not, I won't blame it on the phen.
Take care,
~*bug*~
I am also drinking as much water as I can stand. 
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